Cupcake Memories: Life in Sydney, Australia

I guess it is about time we get one or two more extra micro sd cards for our digicam just in case we ran out of space snapping away at our trip(s). I tend to use up the memory quite quickly especially when making short videos.

Looks like we would need to put this in our shopping list this coming weekend. That would be under DH’s task as he is responsible to purchase all things electrical except kitchen appliances.

One thing that’s become a must take item during holidays is the laptop! I am rather alright without one if I do not have to check and answer important emails but I don’t think DH could live without using his lappie at least once a day.

Despite travelling overseas with his laptop, he never once take out a laptop insurance. Well, well, let’s just hope he doesn’t lose any vital information or work if anything happens to his laptop or worse still, get stolen – certainly hope not!

Frankly I would prefer a holiday the old fashioned way it, no emails, no FB, no need to think about being online but nowadays the internet is vital to keep friends and family updated with our whereabouts. So I guess it’s a no win situation

Remember the times when PowerPoint was probably the easiest and most accessible programme to create slide shows especially if you wish to present photographs on the computer?

Well fast forward a decade later, almost everyone who is able to access a computer would know how to create beautiful photo slides in an instant with the help of free online tools readily available on the internet.

I often receive emails from friends with a link to view their beautiful photos on slides. Some even have Scrapbooking layouts on them, very pretty!

Many people have underestimated the power of online income and what difference it could make to a struggling individual or family. For those starting out in sites or in blogs, the first thing is definitely to make your site/blog known to the world. But as a newbie, how do you go about achieving this?

Fortunately there are free seo tools in the internet that could guide you towards achieving your goal. Just Google for it. It does take some time to build a site/blog from scratch so please don’t give up.

The patience will pay off, it is just a matter of how much you will rake in. As for me, I enjoy being able to buy little things for my girl or for my hobbies without digging into our household income.

Our ducted air cond decided to act up again since it last acted up a year ago! Today, we spent hours looking for the manual to reset the zone system but to no avail. We then look up the air cond manufacturer’s website for a manual, found it, followed the instructions to a tee but what do you know? It still didn’t work!

We got zone 1 and 2 working but not zone 3. So we gave up. DH was gonna call up the manufacturer tomorrow to check if the problem is covered by warranty. Fortunately at the last minute, he somehow decided to check the folder in a box below his desk. There it was, the manual!!!!! The instructions are a bit different to what we found on the manufacturer’s website.

Anyway, DH did everything again according to the manual we found in our folder (which was supplied at the time we had the system installed) and thank goodness everything is back to normal! One less headache!!

But wait, our security alarm system is a bit wacky. Now that one is past its warranty. Sigh, save that story for another day.

I use quite a lot of disk space on my computer. Mainly because of the many photos and videos I took of DD and also my PSD files. DH is looking into various hard drives in the market because he wants to upgrade my and another computer’s existing ones.

That would be nice because running out of disk space when you need to do something, is really annoying. Thank goodness DH handles all the technical aspects of our computers. I wouldn’t have a clue regarding computer maintenance.

I am so far behind today’s management system, know-hows, technology, trends, etc since I retired from the very interesting corporate world almost ten years ago, wow a decade ago!

One of the task I hated was having to contact each person on by one on the phone (painful on the ears when you’re on the phone for hours unless of course you use an earpiece) for any mass announcements such as cancellation or meetings brought forward.

I so wish the companies I worked for back then had subscribed to a text alert system which is web based and with that I could  make any announcement using the control panel and the message would be sent to all individuals listed in the system be it via their cellphones, emails, etc.

Wouldn’t that have made my job much simpler? It’d also free me to concentrate on other tasks too instead of making calls to hundreds of individuals many of whom were not reachable at that particular moment.

I had been very impressed with the barcode system that is being used by the swimming centre we frequent. The entry to the pool is guarded by an electronically controlled door and also barriers like the ones you see at train stations (insert ticket then you may go through) which only unlock once you scan the barcode printed on your receipt.

I wonder if they used the POS systems at the swimming centre as everything seemed so efficient. Even when I paid the full swimming lessons fee for DD, they did not need to manually programme onto my card sized member’s card the number of entries I have paid for. I don’t know how they do it but I am guessing they keyed in the extra/paid for entries into the system itself.

Talk about technology

Yep, not just for my own brain but for my digicam. I tend to take many photos whenever I am out with DD. I don’t know why but I feel that photos is another way to record my daily journal ever since DD was born.

The problem with the digicam is that if we go on holidays and do not bring our laptop to download the photos each time the memory card is full, well you can’t take anymore photos nor videos. But then again given massive availability of micro sd card at almost everywhere, it will not be a problem to just buy one as and when we need it. Moreover they are not expensive too.

Knowing DH, he’ll prolly only buy one if we do run out of memory while on holidays!

Recently I began to notice that the road visibility while driving at night especially on highways where there are no street lights, is a bit dim even with the headlights on.

I wonder if it would be better for us to install hid lights to our car? Not sure. Sigh, car maintenance does not come cheap. Wish we have a car mechanic as a close friend who could advice us and perhaps give some pointers on taking care of our car.